Rebirth

It was a clear and cloudless day, just like many of the endless summer days experienced only by those yet to suffer the indignities of puberty. And as they did on most of these summer days, Adam, Mary, Evie and Joseph were playing in the woods behind Adam's house, near that babbling creek we’re all familiar with.

It was their favorite spot for a number of reasons, not least of which was the fact that adults never came there, leaving them to their devices. Today that meant crayfish hunting, and all three of the children were soaked to their knees and muddy to boot. There would be hell to pay, but that would certainly be later, when the sun began to touch the horizon. In the meantime there was still fun to be had.

John was bending, slowly lifting a rock in a shady and sheltered part of the creek. It was a medium sized rock, not too large, and the perfect kind for crayfish to hide under. And in fact he could just see the segmented tail – it was a huge specimen – and he was slowly reaching for it when a high pitched keening began in the air above.

Suddenly he heard a BOOM, and looking up all three children saw a flash in the sky. Even more exciting was the slowly growing fireball in the sky, like a fireworks rocket, but this one was heading straight for them!

It wasn’t large, but it was coming in surprisingly fast, and appeared to be headed straight for them. They scrambled out of the water, yelling excitedly to each other about the flaming ball crashing towards them.

In a matter of seconds, that actually stretched out into what seemed like hours, there was a huge gushing splash some several hundred feet up the creek, and the kids could see a cloud of steak rising, as if someone had turned the creek into a bubbling cauldron.

All four of them ran helter-skelter alongside the creek, tripping on branches and nearly sprawling headlong in their excitement and curiosity to see what it was that had caused such a ruckus. They all skidded to a stop not ten feet from what looked like a glowing, red-hot baseball.

This baseball was certainly not a baseball. First of all there were no laces, and second of all it had small legs, six of them, protruding from its bottom where it rested precariously on a tree root by the side of the creek. It was also a dull copper color and had small indentations like scars all across its curving surface.

The children looked back and forth at each other, whispering excitedly, as if any greater noise would disturb this apparition that had crashed into their secret woodland playground.

After several minutes of this chatter, Evie, who was always the most adventurous one of the group, slowly crept towards the object, holding a stick before her like a wand or talisman. As she reached out to poke the small round object a green fan of light broke from the side of the cylinder, engulfing all four of the children.

That night on the news there were three important stories, although no one connected them, and even if they had no one on Earth would have ever guessed at their import.

The first, and lead story, was one telling of the disappearance of four ten-year old children in Leander. The kids had gone out to play, as they always did on the clear and cloudless days of summer, but not a one of them returned home. Search parties had been mounted, but thus far there were no leads. Any information about the children could be phoned into the Leander police, anonymously if wished, and there was a reward of $10,000 if it led to a discovery.

The second story was buried near the end of the newscast, and involved an interview with one Joshua Burkitt. Now Josh was a local character, eccentric as they came, and as far as some were concerned, completely bat-shit crazy. Josh was on the news because he had come forward to report his sighting of a UFO, and he had a hazy, shaky, grainy video to prove it. The video showed a flash in the sky, followed by what could have been a small fireball streaking to Earth, if it didn’t just look like a pinprick of light due to the poor quality of the video.

The third, and most important news report wasn’t broadcast anywhere on Earth. This one told of a search completed. Of a collection that would save a planet and a race.

It reported that a return to Earth had been successful and that the ancestors of those who once before visited had been retrieved. These four great-great-great and hundreds of great grandchildren of the original pioneers of Bechdum, a planet in the Cassiopeia constellation and the Dwingeloo 1 galaxy, would be returning to their home world and would be the saviors of what had once been a long-lived race that had dwindled in stature and could no longer procreate. Most importantly of all, the news report continued, was that in addition to re-populating the home world of their ancestors, they were also being saved from the imminent destruction of the Earth planet that had been colonized so long ago.

And so these four children would be the genesis of a new population on an old world that has seen countless such rebirths over the eons.

This is my entry to the 24 Hour Short Story Contest being hosted by @mctiller
The contest itself can be found here: https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@mctiller/writers-win-5-steem-about-usd25-in-the-24-hour-short-story-contest-topic-5-for-february-20
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